Oil-separating apparatus for steam-engines.



No. 655,6"). Patented Aug. 7, I900. L. A. COUPEB.

OIL SEPABATING APPARATUS FOR STEAM ENGINES.

(Application filed Jan. 8, 1900.)

(No Model.)

Urvrra terns LESLIE A. COOPER, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- THIRD TO ALVAH H. SABIN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

OIL-SEPARATING APPARATUS FOR STEAM-ENGlNES.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 655,610, dated August 7, 1900- Application filed-January 8, 1900. Serial No. 645. (N model.)

To (all whom it wy concern:

Be itknown that I, LESLIE A. Coorna, a citizen of the United States of America, and

a resident of Springfield, in the county of llampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oil-Separating Apparatus forSteam- Engines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to improvements in oil-separators for steam-engines.

Asis well known, in the running of certain types of steam-engines, more especially, although not exclusively, in steam-engines of the rotary-piston and rotary-abutment types, oil is copiously introduced into the engine with the steam for lubrication of the rotatable running parts and which oil passes from the interior of the engine with the exhaust-steam.

The object of this invention is to provide, in conjunction with a rotary-piston engine or other type of engine, means for the separation and reclamation of the oil from the exhausting steam, whereby such recovered oil may be used over and over again.

The invention consists in the device or apparatus which constitutes the oil-separator and which is hereinafter fully described, and set forth in the claims.

The improved separator is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows the separator in the crosssectional representation of a concentric-piston rotary steam-engine. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a rotary steam-engine and horizontal sectional view through the separating appa ratus therewith combined, a part of the rotary brush-like appliance being broken away for clearer illustration. Fig. 3 is aplan view of the aforesaid brush-like appliance. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are perspective views of details of constructions comprised in the separator.

Similar characters of reference represent 45 corresponding parts in all the views.

It is to be understood that the steam, with lubricating-oil, is supplied to the engine in the usual manner and is exhausted therefrom through the exhaust-port g, whereupon it en- 5o ters the end portion of the comparatively long cylindrical chamber G, which may prac= I tically be comprised within the same casting which forms the engine-case. The said chamber has end heads to constitute journal-bearings for the shaft 50, surrounding which is the tubular core 52, having a multiplicity of perforations 53, in which are anchored or attached a corresponding number ofr'adial wires 54, extending to or near to the internal wall of the chamber G.

At suitable intervals along the length of the brush-like appliance are ring-plates h, preferably formed in half-sections with angularly-turned lips 55, united by bolts or rivets. These ring-plate sections are supported by arms 56, carried by sectional hubs 57, which are clamped about the core 52 by the screws, bolts, or rivets 58.

Along the base of the casing in which is the chamber G is the channel 59, the'same clownwardly opening at one end thereof to the oilreceiver H, while at the end of the casing G opposite that at which the steam is exhausted thereinto is the final steam-discharge conduit 60.

The shaft is driven by the externallyapplied gearing 62 63, shown as run from the gearj on the rotary abutment-shaft.

' The admixed steam and oil entering the initial end of the casingG is caused by the ring-plate to necessarily mainly pass along through the brush near its core. The mistlike particles of oil are arrested by and collected on the wires and by the centrifugal action thereof thrown outwardly against the surrounding wall of the chamber G and run down to the bottom thereof into the channel 59 and thence into the receiver H. As the ste'amwill have a tendency to work toward the wall of the chamber, the succession of the ring-plates are provided at suitable intervals, asbefore mentioned, to constitute a steambreak, so that it will have its course diverted several times toward the core of the brush to give all portions of the latter opportunity to exert its oil-collecting action before the steam passing through the chamber G reaches the final discharge-passage 60. In addition to the rotary wires or collecting members I may also employ non-rotary wires or collecting members 61, which may be advantageously supported in and extended upwardly above the base of the drain-channel 59 into the chamber G and lapped beyond the ends of the revoluble wires, a vacant annular place or space 62 being left in the brush-like appliance to accommodate these stationary wires or projections. The purpose of these stationary wires or projections will be eX- plained as follows: The steam after having entered within the brush-wires will after a while have developed a revoluble motion more or less nearly in consonance with the brush-wires, whereby the beating action by the brush-wires on the steam and the oil elements therein becomes lessened.

The provision of the stationary wires or members projecting from the wall of the case well toward the core of the brush constitute not only additional parts against which the steam will impinge and upon which deposit more or lessof the contained oil, but will counteract and lessen the revoluble and centrifugal motion of the steam, whereby the latter in its continued course through the brushwires will be by the latter more efficiently whipped, and will consequently insure that the said brush-wires will collect thereon a greater proportion of the oil which is held in suspension by the steam passing therethrough.

The series of stationary steam-breaking appliances may be duplicated at suitable intervals in the separating apparatus, the rotary device being correspondingly constructed for the accommodation thereof.

The description of engine on which this invention is applied is illustrated and claimed in an application for Letters Patent of the United States filed by me October 27, 1899, Serial No. 734,902; butit is to be understood that the herein-described oil-separating apparatus is available in connection with other types of engines.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. An oil-separating apparatus for a steamengine consisting of a casing with steam inlet and outlet openings leading theretoand therefrom, a rotary appliance therein of pervious format-ion, whereby it is longitudinally penetrable by thesteam, and also radially pervious, whereby it will project accumulations of condensed steam and oil toward the wall of the casing, means for the rotation of said appliance, and an oil-collection receptacle in communication with the interior of the said casing.

2. In an oil-separating apparatus, a closed casing or chamber, having steam inlet and outlet ports at opposite portions thereof, a rotary oil collecting or arresting and centrifugally-projecting device having at an intermediate part thereof an unobstructed or vacant space, and a stationary steam-breaking device which projects within the said vacant space in the rotary device.

3. An oil-separating apparatus for a steamengine consisting of a casing with steam inlet and outlet openings leading thereto and therefrom, a rotary brush like appliance therein, and means for the rotation thereof, and an oil-collection receptacle open to the said casing.

4. An oil-separating apparatus consisting of a chambered casing, a rotary shaft extending through the casing having the multiplicity of radial wires with steam-breaking sections at intervals and an oil-collecting receptacle open to the chamber in the casing.

5. An apparatus for separating the oil from the steam exhausted from an engine consisting of a casing having an opening for the entrance of the admixed exhaust-steam and oil, a rotary appliance therein, a drainage-conduit, and means for rotating the said appliance.

6. An oil-separator for a steam-engine consisting of a chambered casing having a drainage-channel, a rotary shaft within said casing having the m ultiplicity of radial wires or members and at intervals annular steam-breaking sections, for the purposes set forth.

7. An oil-separating apparatus for a steamengine consisting of the cylindrical chambercasing G, the rotatable shaft therein, and means for turning it, said shaft being provided at intervals with the radial arms supporting the ring-plates and having between the several ring-plates, radial wires arranged brush-like, a drainage-channel in the base of the chamber and an oil receiver into which said channel leads.

8. An oil-separator for a steam-engine consisting of a chambered casing, a rotary shaft within said casing having a multiplicity of radial wires or members and at intervals annular steam-breaking sections, and a series of non-rotating members within said casing projecting toward the axis of said shaft.

Signed by me at Springfield, Massachusetts, this 29th day of December, 1899.

LESLIE A. COOPER.

WVitnesses:

A. H. SABIN, WM. S. BELLoWs. 

